The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

"God Calls Us All"

The Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams

Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.

During the faith-stretching season of Epiphany, we listen to scripture’s proclamation that God is active in the world. Not only was God’s pre-existing Word born into the world as the very embodiment of the Divine love and mercy and dynamic grace in the historically-bound person of Jesus of Nazareth, but God’s presence and grace continue in the world even until now. We are not in an age characterized by the words of our first reading about Samuel: “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” Certainly that was not true of the time of Jesus, and I do not believe it is true now. If it does seem true to us, we are not being attentive to God’s powerful but often hidden dynamic presence among us.

We stand at a unique moment in earthly history. Last week we inaugurated the first ever female governor of the state of North Carolina, Beverly Eaves Perdue. On Tuesday, the United States, the most influential country in the world, will inaugurate the first African-American president in our history. Barack Hussein Obama, born of a biracial marriage at a time when such unions carried a social stigma, and raised without wealth or prestige, will assume the leadership of our country at a critical and turbulent time both nationally and globally. He carries with him the hopes of people all over the world that his tenure signals a global direction away from armed conflict to more reasoned cooperation, from widening economic and educational gaps to concern for the welfare and well being of every human being, from national and international policies which favor the few and the powerful to a vision of interdependence and reconciliation of all people. No, President-elect Obama is not the Messiah! And his administration will no doubt be marked by its share of disappointments and failures.

But by electing him to our highest office, by turning to someone whose family and upbringing differ from the historical majority’s, by trusting our leadership to someone who literally embodies the union and cooperation of different nationalities and cultures, the United States has signified a new willingness to widen our vision and to include everyone in our governance and to work with all peoples in realizing a better and more unified and more cooperative world.

When barriers are being broken down, God’s grace is at work. When old hatreds are giving way to new visions, the Divine is there. When “things which were cast down are being raised up,” God is being active. When people are called beyond their apathy and energized to look beyond themselves, God’s Spirit is involved. When hope overcomes despair, we know God is with us. When young and old, poor and rich, black and white are all called to serve one another, God is there in the midst of us.

Providentially, this historic inauguration on Tuesday flows, naturally (or perhaps supernaturally) enough right out of the observance tomorrow of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This man, also an African-American, who felt called by God to give his life witnessing to and working for God’s justice for all people, even in his death reminds us that all of us are called by God to “strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.” Just as surely as Samuel was called by God to speak the Lord’s vision, just as surely as Philip and Nathaniel were sought out by Jesus and called to follow him, just as surely as Martin Luther King, Jr. was summoned forth from being a hesitant clergyman to living as a courageous prophet, facing the dogs and jailings and contempt and ultimately the assassin’s bullet, so we too are called by God to respond to the grace given us and to stand up for what is right and just for all God’s people. We too, made in the image of our loving and creative God, are to show forth that love and that generosity to all others, who are also made in that Divine image.

“Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, “’Follow me.’” I like the connection of those two sentences. “Jesus decided to go to Galilee.” He acted with purpose, just as God always acts with intentionality. Jesus traveled to Galilee to form together his closest disciples, and he found Philip and Nathanael and called them to follow him. Now their lives had purpose, the Divine purpose, and they were to walk in the same path as Jesus. Eventually they were to help others respond to the same call and to walk also in that same path, serving God and serving others, all with God’s powerful grace leading and supporting them.

At this unique time in our state’s and our country’s and our world’s history, let us be in awe of God’s grace which can turn people’s hearts and bring people together in hope and common vision. Let us be grateful that throughout history, God raises up leaders to help us find our way and to fulfill the Divine purpose. But let us also be faithful and courageous, knowing that God calls all of us – all of us – to follow God’s grace and to carry out God’s purposes. In our families, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our communities, we are to hold up and to work for whatever is true and honorable, just and lovely and gracious (Philippians 4:8). In doing so, we will all find and be found by God.

I Samuel 3:1-10; John 1:43-51